Michael Garteig and the Penticton Vees capped off a dream season Sunday with a 4-3 win over the Woodstock Slammers in the RBC Cup final.
The Prince George goaltender made 22 saves and Joey Benik scored a power-play goal with 51 seconds left in the third period to lead the Vees to the 42nd National Junior A championship in Humboldt, Sask.
Travis St. Denis and Steven Fogarty gave the Vees a 2-0 lead but the Maritime Hockey League champs from New Brunswick erased the deficit to take 3-2 lead early in the final period on two goals from Bradley Greene and the lone second-period goal from Nick Huard. Penticton's Bryce Gervais tied the game at 3-3 with less than 10 minutes to play.
Penticton opened the RBC Cup with a pair of overtime losses before rattling off three/four straight victories to put the cherry on a season which saw them set a Canadian record with 42 straight wins. The Vees posted a 54-4-0-2 record in the British Columbia Hockey League regular season.
The 20-year-old posted a 41-4-0 record tending net for the record-setting Vees with a .927 save percentage. In his three seasons in the BCHL, Garteig has a 92-23-2 record and a .921 save percentage. Garteig is slated to attended Quinnipiac University, an NCAA Division 1 school, in September.
Garteig played for the Powell River Kings for two seasons losing in the BCHL final to the Vernon Vipers, before joining the Vees for his final season of junior eligibility.
Despite a stellar season Garteig was on the injured list with a lower-body problem for all of the BCHL playoffs, returning midway through the Doyle Cup when the Vees edged the Alberta champion Brooks Bandits 4-1 in the best-of-seven series to secure a place in the national championship.
Garteig had the 20-save shutout Saturday in the semifinal as the Vees blanked the Soo Thunderbirds 3-0, while the Slammers handed the host Humboldt Broncos their first loss of the tournament in a 4-3 overtime win.
Woodstock became only the second team to reach the RBC Cup final in their first appearance in the tournament. The Prince George Spruce Kings accomplished the same feat in 2007.
It's the second Canadian Junior A title for Penticton, who won in 1986 as the Knights during the Centennial Cup years. The Vees become the seventh Pacific Region champion to reach the RBC Cup final in the last eight years.
